Mabel Maney

In 1953, Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale, creating British master spy James Bond. In the next 11 years, Fleming would write 14 books detailing the adventures of the suave and sexy international spy. In the 60’s, Clyde Allison (the pseudonym of William Henry Knoles) would publish 20 sexy parodies featuring agent 0008 in titles such as Sadisto Royale, For Your Sighs Only, and, my personal favorite, Platypussy. Although the Bond films have been parodied recently, no one has recently parodied show more the books. Until now. Mabel Maney, author of several girl detective parodies featuring Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys, has turned her satiric pen on another icon, introducing us to Jane Bond, a hapless bookstore employee who just happens to be James Bond’s lesbian twin sister.

The book takes place in the 60’s, with appropriate cultural and fashion references. The gist of the story is that James Bond has lost his touch and been shipped off to a mental health facility to recover. However, he is also scheduled to receive a medal from the queen, so the loopy plot of convincing Jane to stand in for her brother is conceived. Along with this, the subplots include an all-girl spy ring, a plot to kidnap Queen Elizabeth and put King Edward back on the throne, and Jane’s budding romance with Bridget St. Claire, daughter of society doyenne Lady Emerald St. Claire and member of the aforementioned all-girl spy ring.

The characters are all great fun, from the hapless Agent Pumpernickel to the kindhearted but socially-challenged Lady Edwina Wooley-Booley. Menace is provided by Sir Niles Needlum, the grasping, casually brutal, totally incompetent Agent 008, and as in all James Bond books, the femme fatale Lydia Thorne. The plot is light and swift, and like all good spy thrillers, all of the varied subplots come together in a machine-gun rapid-fire ending.

The coolest thing about the book is how much you come to care about the characters. When reading a parody, character development isn’t usually what I’m looking for—I’m in it for the laughs. This book provides plenty of those, but also gives you reason to be concerned about the characters. You want Bridget and Jane to get together, and for Agent Pumpernickel to reach his retirement safely, and especially for Simon’s bookshop to survive. Although the situation is played for laughs the people aren’t, which added greatly to my enjoyment of the book. show less

This was the kind of book I think very nearly perfectly fits the descriptor of "popcorn read," though it also kind of falls under "really bad fan fiction" as well. The premise is fun enough: Maney took Nancy Drew and another young crime solving woman named Cherry Ames (I didn't grow up reading these and wasn't familiar with them), made them both lesbians, and threw them together to solve a "light hearted" mystery involving a group of missing, and most likely gay, nuns. Since it's technically show more a parody, Cherry's naivete about the whole thing is hilariously extreme, and the prose is overly simple and silly. There are lots of sudden emergencies that end up being conveniently solved by the key the character just found in her purse! sort of thing. In fact, I started thinking of it as a silly B-Movie after getting into the first few chapters. The only thing I really disliked about it was the author's tendency to insert very mature themes into the book without warning, which gave me a bit of whiplash and confused me. For instance, when Nancy Clue finally reveals the answer the mystery that started off this whole adventure, she unexpectedly admits that her father had molested her repeatedly as a child. What the fuck? That is not what I was expecting for what I otherwise found to be a fun read. Reading a few reviews of the book suggests that the author had a habit of doing this in many of her books… Probably one of those quirks that says more about her than me. show less

These parodies of Nancy Drew and and the Hardy Boys are just spot on.

Pretty, titian-haired detective Nancy Clue, known to all for her
keen sleuthing abilities, up-to-the-minute fashion sense, and
gracious finishing-school manners, kicked the right front tire of
her modern convertible in frustration and burst into tears.

If you ever read any of the pulps you'll love these books. As I kid I had many books of The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift series, never had any ND or HB. But I show more just love the nostalgia factor along with the wicked twist Maney has for her characters and the laughs her descriptions and the characters inexplicable actions produce. show less

This is an adorable, light-hearted mystery where all the important characters are lesbians. It’s so cute and silly and gay, I love it. Despite the 1950s setting, it’s refreshingly lacking in homophobia - it never even comes up as a plot point, the closest thing is the way one of the butch girls in the gang keeps getting mistaken for a man.